Cosmological harmony was actually one of the few ideas on which philosopher, scientists, and theologians of Bach’s time were agreed. Newton, for example, could not imagine that a world so orderly as this one could have occurred by “natural Cause alone.” A “powerful, ever-living Agent…governs all things,” he concluded, “not as the soul of the world, but as Lord over all.”
—James R. Gaines, Evening in the Palace of Reason: Bach Meets Frederick the Great in the Age of Enlightenment
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Great quote. One of my favorite scriptures is Psalms 19:1-6 (and actually the whole Psalm). Truly the Heaven's do declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handiwork.
I also like the symbolism involved in Psalms 19:4-6 where the Sun, as it traverses the ecliptic, is symbolic of the Son, Jesus Christ. Just as the Sun travels in its glory, so does the glory of God.
I'm not Presbyterian, I'm Mormon, but we have several scriptures which complement Psalms 19. For instance there is Moses 6:63 which states:
And behold, all things have their likeness, and all things are created and made to bear record of me, both things which are temporal, and things which are spiritual; things which are in the heavens above, and things which are on the earth, and things which are in the earth, and things which are under the earth, both above and beneath: all things bear record of me.
There is also this excerpt from Alma 30:44:
all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and call things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator.
Finally, regarding how natural law bears witness of Christ, I've always liked this quote from Alexander Pope:
Nature and nature's law lay hid in night: God said, "Let Newton be!" and all was light.
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Steven Montgomery
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